SKYO wrote:If you're going for high priced centers, I'd much rather have the playoff superstar Briere, small and slightly injury prone, but come playoffs this guy is money, a Conn Smythe trophy type.And unlike Derek Roy, DB is a sniper!

Yeah, briere does step up in the playoffs, but I think richards is a few years younger and hasn't really had any injury problems. He actually has a conn-smythe under his belt too.

Burmistrov (RFA) would add centre depth & youth. Defensively responsible, good skating & stickhandling, but needs to add some heft. A good distributor, needs a sniper to pass to (could the Kesler centre/wing experiment succeed ?). Word is, he wants out of the peg.

If I were Gillis, I'd get rid of the dead weight (Lu and Ballard for the most part), dont re-sign guys like Raymond, Lappy, Alberts, Barker, Ebbett, Sestito. Sign RFAs Weise and the young guys, Schroeder and Tanev.

Then I'd go out and spend my cap space on guys to fill out the lineup, guys like Hendricks, Nystrom, Torres, etc who are damn hard to play against and have some jam. You might even have enough cash left over to sign a $2 or $3 million dollar winger or center, if you want to. There are enough young scoring wingers coming soon or close to breaking out, it's center ice and grit that are needed, along with clearing out the deadweight.

Don't sign a very expensive free agent, trade for a guy if you want somebody else but it's too costly to sign guys to $4 or $5 million deals, and there's not enough cap space to go around unless major surgery is completed.

No idea what Gillis will get for Lu and Ballard, likely a couple of pics and perhaps a depth guy or two.

SKYO wrote:If you're going for high priced centers, I'd much rather have the playoff superstar Briere, small and slightly injury prone, but come playoffs this guy is money, a Conn Smythe trophy type.And unlike Derek Roy, DB is a sniper!

Yeah, briere does step up in the playoffs, but I think richards is a few years younger and hasn't really had any injury problems. He actually has a conn-smythe under his belt too.

Has it been pointed out that Vancouver fans would be beside themselves if Richards were a Canuck with his record this year?? I'm mean barely avoid a sweep with a sedin in the press box?

I'd rather MG concentrate on underdog UFA's this July, solidifying our depth with *quality* players for our 3rd/4th lines and defense...meaning no Barker or Ebbett types.

Fix the top 6 forwards via trade, similar to that Schenn for JVR type swap...Edler for Bobby Ryan! seems the Ducks could go for that, and we finally/hopefully get some help for the Kesler line, which ultimately helps free up the Sedin line.

Our defense is deep enough to handle the loss of Edler imo, Garrison seems to be getting better, and Tanev can step it up.There's also other possible trades to come or UFA moves to help with the loss of Edler as well.

For me it's not so much about giving up on Edler, but I think at 27 years old and over 400 NHL games what you see is what you get with the Eagle. He's a premiere offensive defenseman with a fantastic shot and great offensive vision. He's also mediocre defensively, soft, cannot play the right side at all, doesn't play with any edge and has a bummed back.

I say trade while his stock is high and get some help up front, which is clearly needed desperately. Hamhuis and Garrison are fine as our two top four lefties, Tanev is coming into his own and has shown he can handle top four minutes, Bieksa is serviceablo and Corrado should be with the Canucks next year. With cap challenges looming, it doesn't make sense to have a $4M+ guy on the 3rd pairing, and for crying out loud let's not have any more defencemen uncomfortably playing on their off side, especially ones who have proven to struggle in such a role, if we can avoid it.

For me it's not so much about giving up on Edler, but I think at 27 years old and over 400 NHL games what you see is what you get with the Eagle. He's a premiere offensive defenseman with a fantastic shot and great offensive vision. He's also mediocre defensively, soft, cannot play the right side at all, doesn't play with any edge and has a bummed back.

Obviously Edler had a tough year but how do replace 50+ points from the back end?

For me it's not so much about giving up on Edler, but I think at 27 years old and over 400 NHL games what you see is what you get with the Eagle. He's a premiere offensive defenseman with a fantastic shot and great offensive vision. He's also mediocre defensively, soft, cannot play the right side at all, doesn't play with any edge and has a bummed back.

Obviously Edler had a tough year but how do replace 50+ points from the back end?

Edler will bounce back

For starters, Edler has never recorded 50 points in his career. He scored 49 points in 2011-12 but was a complete disaster defensively.

How do you replace his points? Put his replacement on the ice with the Sedins all the time just like he was.

Hamhuis and Bieksa both recorded 37 and 44 points in the same season.....they weren't out on the PP with the Sedins all the time.